'Legend of the Fist' review: Donnie Yen, masked and dangerous

Pitched somewhere between a comic book origin movie and a martial arts action film, “Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zhen” is best appreciated as a showcase for the charisma and potency of its star, the underrated Donnie Yen, and the inventiveness of its director, Andrew Lau.

Plotwise, it’s a throwaway: Chen Zhen (based loosely on a character once played by Bruce Lee) returns to his Shanghai home from fighting in World War I to endure brutal life under Japanese occupation. Eventually he is roused to rise up against the bad guys, adopting an alter-ego and taking to the night to wreak vengeance.

This isn’t at the same level of quality as Yen’s “Ip Man 2,” which played earlier this year and was one of the best martial arts movies in a long time. But it is entertaining, even if it does ask you to suspend boatloads of disbelief. Yen has real star power, and the spectacle of him swooshing through the night like Spiderman or Batman is a pleasure that you don’t have to feel too terribly guilty about, even as you wish the film made more sense.